gracious message to the printing office, and ordered seven copies
for Leicester House. But these overtures seem to have been very
coldly received. Johnson had had enough of the patronage of the
great to last him all his life, and was not disposed to haunt any
other door as he had haunted the door of Chesterfield.

By the public the Rambler was at first very coldly received.
Though the price of a number was only twopence, the sale did not
amount to five hundred. The profits were therefore very small.
But as soon as the flying leaves were collected and reprinted
they became popular. The author lived to see thirteen thousand
copies spread over England alone. Separate editions were
published for the Scotch and Irish markets. A large party
pronounced the style perfect, so absolutely perfect that in some
essays it would be impossible for the writer himself to alter a
single word for the better. Another party, not less numerous,
vehemently accused him of having corrupted the purity of the
English tongue. The best critics admitted that his diction was
too monotonous, too obviously artificial, and now and then turgid
even to absurdity. But they did justice to the acuteness of his
observations on morals and manners, to the constant precision and
frequent brilliancy of his language, to the weighty and
magnificent eloquence of many serious passages, and to the solemn
yet pleasing humour of some of the lighter papers. On the
question of precedence between Addison and Johnson, a question
which, seventy years ago, was much disputed, posterity has
pronounced a decision from which there is no appeal. Sir Roger,
his chaplain and his butler, Will Wimble and Will Honeycomb, the
Vision of Mirza, the Journal of the Retired Citizen, the
Everlasting Club, the Dunmow Flitch, the Loves of Hilpah and